Reading and Writing in Chinese

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Lawrence Armstrong
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1 Reading and Writing in Chinese First of all, make sure your computer is enabled for displaying Chinese. See other documents on Setting Up Chinese IME (Input Method Environment) in Windows for details. READING - (1) WITH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK Normally, text type (encoding) is auto-detected upon opening. For various reasons, detection may fail. Shown below is an incoming with a few embedded Chinese words, 朱自清, 背影. It displays garbled text. 1. The first step is to go to View->Encoding to manually correct the encoding. In Figure 1, those Chinese characters redisplayed properly by setting the encoding to Chinese Traditional (Big5) Figure 1 2. If this simple setting doesn t work, try the following steps based on how these characters are displayed: a.????? : This was never encoded properly by the sender. These characters have no meanings any more. Contact the sender and ask for a resend after proper encoding. Beware that the sender should not resend the copy in his Sent Mail box since that copy has also been filtered without encoding. The sender may have to retype the for you. b. 0$n!%L(#C$F7m : This is caused by mismatched encoding. Go to View->Encoding and try GB or UTF-8 (a commonly used encoding from WEB-based mailtool) and other encodings. c. 秋天 or (Figure 2): these are web/html" codes. Highly likely the sender is using a web-base mailtool but those UTF-* encoded characters were sent as plain US-ASCii texts literally. Use NJstar Communicator to view. Or save it as text, and then add <html> in the beginning of the first line and resave it as XXX.html. Then you can double-click it to view with your browser. Keep in mind that these characters cannot be copied/pasted for reuse elsewhere. (see next page) Figure 2 d. 0$n!%L(#C$F7m : If nothing works, these text strings may have been damaged by auto line wrap of sender s/reader s mailtool where linefeed characters have been inserted in between; or may contain mixed encoding (combined copy/paste from various sources); or.. Copyright TCLS page 1 of 6

READING EMAIL - (1) WITH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK Normally, text type (encoding) is auto-detected upon opening. For various reasons, detection may fail.

2 READING - (2) DIFFICULTIES WITH UTF-8 ENCODED CHARACTERS UTF-8 Characters are convenient for viewing with HTML browsers. However, these UTF-8 encoded characters may display properly but you have difficulties in copying/pasting them to other applications (Figure 3). You can either (1) in WORD, highlight these text and set paragraph type to HTML to view them or (2) use 南極星 NJStar Chinese Word Processor (v4.35) as the intermediate converter from HZ for Internet to BIG5 (Figure 4) to fix them. Figure 3 Figure 4 READING - (3) WITH INTERNET BROWSER (WEB-BASED) Copyright TCLS page 2 of 6

You can either (1) in WORD, highlight these text and set paragraph type to HTML to view them or (2) use 南極星 NJStar Chinese Word Processor (v4.

3 Read from or using Internet Explorer, go to View->Encoding (or right-click any where within the body) and set it to Chinese Traditional (Big5) or UTF-8 (Figure 5, 6). Otherwise, apply similar steps as mentioned in page 1. Figure 5 Figure 6 If you are using Mozilla browser on linux, go to View->Character Coding->More->East Asian and set it to Chinese Traditional (Big5) or UTF-8. WRITING - (1) GENERAL RULES 1. Keep in mind that it is the sender s responsibility to create a properly encoded for recipients. Seeing them displayed properly while writing your does not mean that your will be sent properly. (1) Understand the importance of proper encoding, and make sure it s either BIG5 or UTF-8. (2) Select Copy Message to Sender Folder so you can verify it if your recipients cannot read your message in Chinese. (3) If you can t solve the problem, use attachments. Write Chinese as a separate text document (.DOC or.rtf) and send it as an attachment. (4) If recipients still couldn t read your attachment, make it a raster image file (.GIF or JPG) and send it as a picture attachment. Copyright TCLS page 3 of 6

Otherwise, apply similar steps as mentioned in page 1.

4 WRITING - (2) WITH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 1. If your computer has been setup properly for Chinese language support, just turn on your desired Chinese IME and type directly into the body of your . Figure 7 2. If your software does not support foreign IME, you can type the body of your in 南極星 NJStar Chinese Word Processor (v4.35) and copy/paste over. 3. This is the last and the most important step: Go to Format->Encoding and set it to Chinese Traditional (BIG5) or UTF-8 before sending it out. You can set your default encoding for all outgoing mail in you Outlook by going to Tools->Options->Mail Format->International Options if so desired. Figure 8 4. If you are using Microsoft Office XP. the GUI (graphics User Interface) for View and Format menu settings in Microsoft Outlook is different from illustrated above. It reveals more formatting information. See Figure 9 below. Copyright TCLS page 4 of 6

If your email software does not support foreign IME, you can type the body of your email in 南極星 NJStar Chinese Word Processor (v4.35) and copy/paste over. 3.

5 Figure 9 WRITING - (3) WITH INTERNET BROWSER (WEB-BASED) Using web-based mailtools such as or you must go to View->Encoding and set Chinese Traditional (BIG5) or UTF-8 prior to composing your . Otherwise, what you send out will not be exactly as what you typed. Select Copy Message to Sender Folder so you can verify it. Figure 10 Copyright TCLS page 5 of 6

com; you must go to View->Encoding and set Chinese Traditional (BIG5) or UTF-8 prior to composing your

6 WRITING - (4) Reply with original included 1. It is very common that you reply to sender (or to all) with the original included below. You may be aware that your default encoding may be different from the original sender s. This creates an body that contains multiple encoding markers. In the following sequence of illustration, you can see encodings have been changed back and forth. Depending on your tools, It may start showing problems. WRITING - (5) RECOMMENDATIONS 1. EMBED CHINESE CHARACTERS: Using foreign (non-ascii English) characters in addresses and in the subject line are allowed but should be discouraged, particularly for between foreign countries. It introduces non-local display in your software and may mess up your operating environment. 2. KEEP IT SIMPLE: Simple format and standard font minimizes the risk of having encoding mismatches. Therefore, make sure the encoding is BIG5 and Format->Plain Text ; or UTF-8 if you need HTML/WEB layout. Use MingLiU font if you re given a font choice. 3. USE THE RIGHT FORMAT FOR ATTACHMENTS:.RTF is the simplest text format since it maintains the integrity of Chinese characters and can be opened by almost all editors. With the popularity of Microsoft Office today, use Word.DOC and other office documents when complicated charts or image are embedded. For images, use compressed format such as.gif (256-color format) or.jpg (true-color photos). Notes: a. This document is prepared for the environment using 中文繁體字 (BIG5). Steps for 簡體字 (GB) are similar. b. In addition to offering computer course to our students, TCLS gives seminars such as How to set up Chinese IME (Input Method Environment) in Microsoft Windows, from time to time, to our parents and the community. Visit for schedule and details. c. The software, 南極星 NJStar Chinese Word Processor (v4.35), which has been mentioned several times in this document can be downloaded (free demo) from or purchased at Copyright TCLS page 6 of 6

In the following sequence of email illustration, you can see encodings have been changed back and forth. Depending on your email tools, It may start showing problems.

Email Basics. a. Click the arrow to the right of the Options button, and then click Bcc.

Email Basics. a. Click the arrow to the right of the Options button, and then click Bcc. Email Basics Add CC or BCC You can display the Bcc box in all new messages that you compose. In a new message, do one of the following: 1. If Microsoft Word is your e-mail editor a. Click the arrow to